If Clevelanders want a future for their public schools, it will cost them 15 mills: editorial

Plain Dealer fileJayden Colon-Martinez, 7, works on his story about having a leprechaun sleepover for St. Patrick's Day during Nancy Szilagyi's class at the Near West Intergenerational School in Cleveland.

Gasp.

That's the sound that came from many Clevelanders when they learned last week that the Cleveland public schools are asking for a 15-mill levy to implement Mayor Frank Jackson's hard-won school reform plan.

Despite their skepticism of -- or even outright anger at -- their long-troubled school system, voters must take a leap of faith for the future of Cleveland's 41,000 students.

The levy would deliver an estimated $77 million annually to support the Cleveland Plan for Transformation over the next four years. It's a down payment on the future that, if successful, will result in better-educated youth, improved neighborhoods and higher property values.

Under the Cleveland Plan, inadequate teachers will be fired. Staff will tighten their belts. Failing schools will close. Children should see immediate changes in school hours, teaching methods and classroom equipment. This plan is for the children, not the administrators.

Outstanding charter schools that partner with the district would get $5 million a year from property taxes.

Yes, hard-pressed Clevelanders are being asked to pay more for everything from garbage pickup to sewer service. But after 16 years of no additional local funds for the city schools -- which is much too long -- plus shrinking government aid and growing school deficits, Clevelanders must make this critical investment in education.

Jackson's call for a four-year levy is smart, allowing voters to hold city and school officials accountable. Voters will get the final say in four years about whether the reforms were worth the price.

Still, it is disappointing that, although Gov. John Kasich heartily backed Jackson's plan as it wended its way through a sometimes hostile state legislature, he has been unwilling to contribute an extra nickel to help implement it. State budget cuts that disproportionately impact large city school systems have been a big part of the Cleveland district's recent financial problems.

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Nor does it help matters that the collection rate on Cleveland's 1996 13.5-mill operating levy is now just 78.9 percent. Or that Cleveland's property values are so low that it takes as much as five times the millage to raise the same number of dollars in Cleveland that it would in property-rich suburbs. As the Ohio Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled, Ohio desperately needs a fairer school funding formula.

The district has to do its job as well. Schools CEO Eric Gordon has to continue cutting expenses, not just by cutting teachers but by terminating administrators as well.

''Finally, it's important that Clevelanders sell this levy to other Clevelanders. Cleveland City Council members have to stop the naysaying and explain to their constituents how success could pay off in even greater ways, with more jobs, more residents and improved safety. If the city's elected leaders don't believe that Cleveland's children deserve a top-notch education, why should the voters?

Cleveland's teachers, who are still in the midst of hardball negotiations with the district, have to invest their all to help get out the vote.

Doing nothing in the face of rising deficits that will lead inevitably to massive layoffs and drastic cuts in services could doom the schools. That's the ugly reality if Clevelanders turn their backs on their schools at this critical time.

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